


Sharp

by CaptainLucario3



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder Mystery, Torture, Whipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 13:57:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15820260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLucario3/pseuds/CaptainLucario3
Summary: Getting tried with murder isn't fun, as Alex soon finds out. He's tasked with three days to find out who did it.





	1. Rough Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is a *short* story I was assigned to write for a creative writing class. I thought this turned out alright, but I'm not really sure. I know that it has a relationship listed, but it's not the main focus. I'm not really good at writing romance, as I found out. So, yeah... I hope you guys enjoy this.

Last night, I was invited to my friend, Roy’s, graduation party. He had finally got his teaching degree and he was working on getting a job at some school. The party itself was pretty crazy-- but I don’t drink, so I remember most of what happened.

I remember Roy giving his short speech about how me and his other friends helped him through college. Afterwards, it turned completely informal. I’d bought a tux and wore it there thinking it was going to be formal. I ended up slipping on something, I don’t know or even want to know what it was and, in the end, let’s just say that my clothing got more trashed than I did. I was also knocked out at that moment. I do have a slight headache right now, I must have fell pretty hard.

I groan out as I sit up quickly and collapsed back to the floor. I lay there just staring up at a ceiling fan. I slightly move my head to the side, checking if I was alone or not. I’m thinking that I won’t be alone, but I was, surprisingly enough. Finding it would be useless to just lay there, I slowly got up. I quiver a little bit, getting used to standing. I wander around, and find that there was no place in this house that wasn’t completely messy or broken. Suddenly, a terrible smell hit me; it smells like someone died. I feel like I’m going to throw up. So I did. I rush to the bathroom, throwing up into the little porcelain toilet. I feel like I’m in hell.

Afterwards, I make my way near the smell. I don’t know why I decided to do that. If I were sane, I would’ve left like everyone else did. Yet, I push on. I make my way through the long hallway which was filled with broken picture frames and tore up papers, most likely the photos. I feel bad for Roy. He probably didn’t want the party to end up like it did. Yet, he still participated in it, drinking away, so I couldn’t feel all that bad for him. I take a left and go downstairs to the basement. The basement door is busted, like someone had rammed through it. I cautiously step over the door and turn on the light. The lights never really worked, sometimes dim and flickering. It was one of those moments, the lights were flickering on and off. It always annoyed me, which was no exception right now. I look around, trying to catch any visuals from the limited light and, boy, were there some visuals.

Blood. Puddles and smears of blood scattered around the cold floor. I feel absolutely sick to my stomach. I gulp, walking forward into a small room to the right. It was more of a closet, but Roy always insisted that it was a room. He always thought there was nothing wrong with his basement, now that I think about it. I enter the room, the smell hitting me like a truck. I turn on the lights to this room and look down.

There he is, resting on the floor. Something seems off so I nudge his body with my foot. He barely moved. I crouch down and turn him over so I can get a look at him. That was a bad idea. One of his eyes (his left one) is pulled out, blood still dripping from its socket. He has a broken nose, I can see the little bones poking out from the skin. His lips are cut off, I can see the teeth, and it looked like someone ripped some of his teeth out. I let go of him, hyperventilating. I run from the basement and call the cops.

After making sure the front door is unlocked, I go and sit down in a corner. Curling into a fetal position, I begin to weep. I’m in shock, I’m scared, I’m confused. Who killed my friend? Why did they kill him? When did they kill him? How did they get away so easily? I’m full on crying when the police arrive. I can hear one of them speaking to me, but I can’t understand anything he’s saying.

“Sir! Sir!” One of them says. There’s two of them, one really skinny with short brown hair, sunglasses and a stoic face. The other one, the one speaking to me, was short but pretty muscular, he also had sunglasses on (what is up with wearing sunglasses indoors?), and has short black hair with a goatee.

“Sir, we need you to- oh screw it, Jefferson, search upstairs, I’ll search downstairs.” The other one (apparently Jefferson) nods and leaves to search upstairs. The other one left me lying in the corner and went to search for Roy’s body. I wonder if the murderer is still here, just strategically hiding somewhere. Probably not, that’d be dumb on their part.

After what feels like an eternity, the Jefferson guy returns. I’m not listening to him, but I can hear him speaking to something or, more likely, someone. He leaves once more to go where I think would be downstairs. I wonder what Roy could have done to piss someone off. Did he do drugs or something and couldn’t pay up? Maybe… I guess I won’t really figure out anytime soon, but honestly, I don’t think he ever did drugs. We were kind of close, not boyfriend wise, but kind of like brothers. I spent enough time with Roy to know he was against drug usage, very much against drug usage in fact. The only time he ever did drugs was when we tried cannabis for the first time back when we were in high school. He hated the feeling. I didn’t mind it, but he was in absolute torture. I know he drinks alcohol, but I don’t consider that drugs, per se. I don’t really think he would’ve got hooked on drugs when he freaking hated cannabis. Just a hunch.

Soon, the officers return. They’re waiting for someone, I can tell from their stances. The short one looks over at me.

“We’re going to have to bring you with us to the station. You’re the only one here and we don’t know who did it. We’re not saying that you did it, but you may know who did.”

“I don’t know who did it though.” I reply, speaking for the first time since these two showed up. They share a look; I can definitely tell they think I killed Roy. I let out a shaky breath. After a while, a female officer shows up with a body bag. They all go downstairs, while I situate myself, standing up and waiting for them to return to take me to the station.

\---

Well, that went as unexpected, I just got charged for murder. The officers told me that I have to find out who did it, or I’m going to be sent to prison. I’m not suited for prison! I still look like a kid! So, now I’m just heading home. I don’t know where to start looking though. I don’t really know his other friends, but I did know his ex’s. I should mention this, I’ve known Roy since we were going to elementary school. We’ve been through a lot together, so of course I know who’s he dated. Maybe consult them about Roy. How they feel about him, if they have vengeance… I am good at reading people, so I’ll be able to tell.   
Something tells me maybe it was someone at the party. Because, obviously, he was at the party when he died. But I don’t think anyone would have gotten away with it if they were at the party. I don’t remember every single person there, but I do know some names. There weren’t a lot of people at the party, so this should be quick. I still decide to head home, call in from work, since I have to go tomorrow, say hello to my dog, and start making a list of who to interrogate. So I do just that.

\---

I make it home, and I can hear the barking from outside, of course Bella would tell if I was coming home. Then it hit me, I was gone for an entire night and a full morning today, and I left my baby home! I only live by myself, and I thought it would have been a good idea to leave my dog home by herself. I am such an idiot. I thought I would have came home last night though. I‘m usually more responsible than this. I rush inside after messing with my keys, and Bella bounds towards me. I hug her and start apologizing, moving quickly to feed her. I swear, my dog can understand what I’m saying sometimes because she starts whining and licking my hands. She’s a big dog-- a pitbull actually. I’m kind of tall myself, but my arms are long. I quickly fill her food bowl with her food and her water bowl, then head to the bathroom.

Afterwards, I make that very important phone call with my boss. He seems understanding of my situation and lets me take the next three days off, but I don’t care since I’m very close to being hauled off to prison for something I didn’t do. I find this whole situation completely unfair. I get that I was the only one there with him, but still… I’m getting punished hardcore for something someone else did. I end the call with my boss, and go to my room. I leave the door slightly open just in case Bella wants to come in. I lay down on my bed and stare at my ceiling fan. I close my eyes after a little bit and start to think of who was at the party.


	2. Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex goes to a couple houses looking to see if he can get answers.

Recounting the people at the party is actually sort of hard since I don’t remember who exactly was at the party. There weren’t that many people there. So, crossing off most of the list, are the people that I know, and, in my opinion, are kind of suspicious in the way they act.

First off is Michael Setch. He was involved with some pretty hardcore drugs, such as Meth and Heroine… of what I know personally. He’s admitted to have been jealous of Roy, since he graduated college. He had to drop out of college due to extremely bad grades. He has a very short temper, so it’s not hard to imagine that he would have killed Roy in an act of jealousy. He would first play it off like he was happy for Roy, lead him into the basement, and pow! Murder him in cold blood. But… that doesn’t explain why the door was rammed into. I would not think that Michael would be that dumb to break the door open and expect to not get caught. So that would mean that Michael would have to lure everyone out of the house to carry on with his plan. But someone would know if he killed Roy, the smell was absolutely unbearable when I could smell him… so maybe Michael didn’t do it? I can’t say for sure though. He could have done it after the party too, now that I think about it.

Another person I think may have done it was Samantha Beth. She’s a very smart woman. In fact, probably a little too smart for her own good. She may have done it because I know of her secret fascination of Roy. How this plays into it all? Well, maybe she confessed it to Roy, but he turned her down, so in an act of revenge of hurting her, she convinces him to drink, and keep drinking until he’s knocked well out, she’s manipulative in that sense. I myself have fallen victim to her a few times. So, anyways, she stealthily brings him downstairs to kill him… except, again with the broken door. I have no idea how someone would break open the basement door and get away with that, and Samantha could not possibly break down a door by herself… except… maybe she had help. Maybe she convinced some men to break open the door for her. Well, I think I have my reasons to go down to each of their houses and interrogate them until I get their answers.

\---

Making sure to fill the food bowl again before I leave, seeing as this could take hours, I set out to Michael’s house first. After a short walk, I stand in front of his small rundown house. The blue paint is pale and dirty. The front two windows are broken, and the grass outside is long and slightly brown. What the hell did he do to his house? I maneuver my way to his front door, knocking firmly, but the door just opens. Okay, so I guess he doesn’t have a lock on his door. I step inside, and it looks even worse than it does outside: the walls are busted, and you can actually see cracks in solid brick, his furniture, tore up, except for his couch that stands barely in front of his small tv set. But that was just his living room, his kitchen smells like a skunk sprayed the place. It was arguably in worse condition than his living room. The paint is chipped, any pictures that may have been hung up on the walls were torn down and ripped to shreds, garbage was absolutely everywhere, what looked to be most of his dishes, were not clean. I swear I can see mold growing on some plates. I peer upstairs, finding that the stairs are spaced apart. There are spiderwebs on the walls, and I can hear squeaking from under the stairs. I decide to not move one bit. I let out a sigh, and call out for Michael.

“Michael! Dude, your house is a mess!” I was not really expecting him to respond to that. Guess the world has a lot of surprises for me today.

“Alex? Hey, how’s it?” I look to my right side, the living room, to see Michael lifting himself off the raggedy couch. In a no nonsense mood I make my way over to him, floor creaking as I move towards him. I stop behind the couch behind him. He looks up at me with a lazy smile. His short brown hair looks greasy, but that’s the only thing that’s dirty about him. His skin is clean, he isn’t actually shivering for once. He has brown eyes, and a pert little nose. He’s a little bit too skinny, but he has a lot of strength hidden within. His eyes have bags underneath, most likely due to deprived sleep. He doesn’t look particularly pissed about something right now, which makes me believe he’s either clean and didn’t tell me about it, or he just woke up. Maybe both.

“It’s going… okay. So, how was the party last night?” I ask.

“It was definitely fine,” he lets out a small laugh, “I had a good time. Seriously, you couldn’t call me or something, though? I don’t want you seeing my house like this.” I nod, getting ready to question him.

“So, you hear from Roy today?” I start off with.

“Uh, no, dude.” He cocks his left eyebrow at me, not understanding where I’m going with this. To be honest, I don’t even really know where I’m going with this, so I let it out.

“Look, let’s stop with the nonsense, did you or did you not kill Roy?” He blinks in shock, and furrows his eyebrows.

“No, dude… wait, Roy’s dead? Like, our Roy? Dead?”

“Uh… yeah. I think i have a right to be suspicious of your behavior, Michael, I mean, you did say you were jealous of him graduating college.” I grow slightly nervous, I can see his shoulders tense. I already had my answer: he didn’t kill Roy. His eyes were locked onto mine as well, so I can definitely tell he wasn’t lying

“Why would you think I’d kill him over that!? Damnit, Alex, I thought I could trust you, and here you are, in MY house, asking me if I killed my friend!? Unbelievable!” He is rightfully pissed off.

“Look, I’m about to be sent to prison if I don’t find out who killed him, okay? I was just thinking back to our conversation last week…” I let a sigh out, “I really need to find out who killed him, if you know anything, let me know. I’ll leave you be.” I give up after that, getting ready to ask Sam. I turned to leave, feeling awful all of a sudden. All of a sudden, I feel Michael’s hand on mine, halting me to a stop. I look behind me, Michael actually looks dead panned serious for once in his life.

“Alex, I’ll help you. First off, I know what you’re thinking. If you asked me, you either questioned Sam or about to. Don’t. She left after Roy gave his speech. I actually was the last one to leave before you, I was watching over you just in case some people got an idea to mess with you. Anyways, I think I heard the back door opening, but it really faint, so i ignored it. That’s most likely your killer.” I blink. I then hug him, I am so grateful that he decided to help me out. I totally owe him, of which I told him as much. He shrugs it off. “Go get that bitch dude. Roy didn’t deserve to die like that. He was a good man.” I nod, taking my leave, finally realising how much my lungs appreciated fresh air.

\---

I make my way over to Sam’s, just to let her know of Roy’s death. She deserves to know, she was a close friend of his afterall.

I stand in front of her house, or correctly, her parent’s house. At least it didn’t look like a group of hobos lived there. I knock on the door, waiting a few moments before it opened to reveal Sam. She has thicke blonde curly hair with creamy white skin, a couple freckles laid on her cheeks. She has plump pouty lips, with big hazel eyes, and an hourglass figure. If I was even remotely straight, I’d be into her.

“Hey Alex! What brings you here today?” A big smile resting on her face; I really do not want to tell her the news. I let out a small cough.

“How about we go inside?” She stood aside, and let me in. The house was pretty much what you expect from a family home. As you come in, you have to take off your shoes, then you’re greeted to the living room. It has two plump couches, a red one and a pink one, a decent sized television in front, a freaking fireplace with photos hung up over it, nice hardwood floor, and a few houseplants in the corners. That’s where we decide to talk. I lick my lips as I seat myself across from Sam. I look up at her, she looks slightly worried since I look very serious.

“Alex, what’s it that you wanted to tell me?” I let a sigh out.

“Sam… Roy died today.” I watch as her face scrunches up in confusion, then realization hits her. She starts breathing hard. She definitely looks like she’s about to cry. I feel really bad for her. She never got to tell Roy her true feelings. She never really loved anyone like she did Roy, except her father, but that would fall into familial love. Not romantic.

“Oh my gosh… Alex! I- I never told him… Alex! I never told him! Why!?” She starts breaking down then, full on sobbing. I just sit, listening to her heart wrenching cries. I look down at my hands, they are clasped together; slightly sweaty from how nervous I was. Her cries nearly get me to breakdown, people can get you to do that.

After a while, she begins to calm down for a moment. Her eyes were red from all the crying, and snot was running down her nose. I reach over next to me and grab a few tissues and hand her them. She accepts them and starts blowing her nose and wiping her messy face. I feel like I should involve her in the search, she can hack like a god.It would probably do good for us, helps me find the culprit faster, and she can release her own vengeance on the monster who killed Roy.

“Sam, I know I’m asking a lot out of you, but… if you hear about anything, will you tell me? I’m one step away from being hauled off to prison, if I don’t find out who killed Roy in three days.” She nods and gives a small smile.

“I’ll help you any way I can. I’ll t-try to get ahold of anyone w-who was a-at the party.” I smile and get up to leave, giving Sam a reassuring look before exiting her house.

When I get home, it’s 7 o'clock at night. I check in with Bella, she’s snoozing on her dog bed, looking really peaceful. I watch her for a little while. She’s kind of like my kid, just… with four legs, a tail, and fur. She certainly acts like a kid too. She loves to play outside, so I installed a dog door big enough to let her outside whenever she felt like it. It isn’t too big, that a human could get through, unless it was a small child, so I don’t worry about break ins all that much.

After watching her sleep, I close the door to her room and head downstairs to make dinner. I’ve built a very peaceful life in this scary city. I try not to show fear, but I definitely feel it. I’ve always felt like I would die here from a murder or something. But, I’ve always lived here, and I know how to not get in any trouble. But… the feeling never leaves me. Especially after what happened today. I don’t feel like sleeping, since I’m scared all I’m gonna see is Roy’s butchered face. Yet, I know I have to if I want to be anywhere near productive these next few days.

I eat my dinner, just a salad, and read for a little bit. Afterwards, I fall asleep. Of course, it couldn’t just stop at that. I keep tossing and turning in my sleep, sweating buckets onto my sheets. All I can see is Roy, his lifeless gaze on me, and I can’t turn away or erase it. I hear whimpering, but I assume it was me. I slowly get up to take a shower and drink some Valerian tea to help me sleep. Never did I hear a door opening a closing from downstairs.


	3. Rising Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finds out Bella is gone, and tries to find out where she is with a little help.

It’s the next day. Only two more days to find this mysterious killer. I still don’t really have a lead on who did it, though. All I know is that some person may or may not have snuck into Roy’s house after Michael left.

I go to feed Bella, however, she’s nowhere to be seen. I start calling out for her. I check the dog door to outside, she’s not in front of it, so I open the door, panicked. She’s not out here either. I start checking just about everywhere, seeing if maybe she’s asleep on something. She’s nowhere. My baby was kidnapped! I grab my phone and call someone, I’m on the verge of a panic attack. The ringing stops on the other end; someone picked up.

“Alex, dude, are you alright? I can hear your breathing on my end dude.” I apparently called Michael. I try to take a deep breath and calm down, but ultimately fail.

“Michael! It’s terrible! Bella was dog-napped!”

“Bella? Your dog?”

“Who else would I be talking about!?” I yell into the phone.

“Dude, chill. I’m coming over now. Try to relax.” He hangs up, as I’m left holding the phone shakily in my hand. I’m literally full on twitching and hyperventilating. I slowly lower the phone from my ear and cradle it, having nothing else to do except panic.

\---

Soon enough, Michael comes in finding me laying on the floor, struggling to breathe. He crouches down, and pulls me into a hug. He starts whispering reassurances, and soon enough, I’m calm enough to think rationally. He lets go of me, and I sigh.

“Thank you for that Michael. I needed that.”

“No problem, dude. I don’t like seeing you like that.” I blushed slightly, but brushed that comment off. I started to really focus on the issue at hand: Bella’s gone.

“So, we need to find Bella. It’s not like she would have ran away since I’ve got fencing in the backyard, and she can’t open the doors.” Michael nods along as I explain to him. “I seriously feel like she was dog-napped. Someone must have snuck in at night and stole her. Luckily, I have security cameras. I think about the safety of my baby before anything else. I love her.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go check that out.” I nod, and lead him to Bella’s room. “She’s got her own room?” Michael asks in disbelief. I smile as I’m reaching up to grab the camera.

“Yeah, I guess I do spoil her a bit.”

“A bit? Dude, I barely even have a room for myself. I just end up sleeping on the couch.” I snort.

“Yeah, maybe if you cleaned up a little bit, then you’d have a room.” He gapes at me in surprise, not expecting that retort from me.

“Yeah, well… you try to remember cleaning up a house by yourself. You’ve got a do to help you.” Is he being serious right now? He knows that dogs aren’t really good at cleaning, right? I roll my eyes and, with camera in hand, head over to my office. I hook up my camera to my computer, and pull up the footage.

“So, I’m just going to have to pull up last night, put this at 2x speed, and… there!” I sit there with Michael looming over me as we wait for anything suspicious to happen. After 5 minutes of watching intently, we notice that Bella was up and alert. We hear her whining, and she got up from her bed. I tense up and lower the speed of the video. She let out little bark and ran to the wall. That’s when we heard the door being opened. My eyes widened in fear and I could feel a panic attack rising again. Michael put a hand on me, and I calm down a little.

“Boss, is this the mutt?” We hear someone say. I furrow my eyebrows. Someone wanted to take my dog… but why?

“Yeah. Come on, let’s get outta here before we get caught. We’re supposed to get some big reward, stop wasting time.” I saw a guy advance towards my baby, that’s when she attacked. Smart girl, I thought. She bit the guy on the hand and he shouted out. I don’t know how I didn’t hear him. Two other guys appear and surround Bella. One guy pulled out a muzzle, while the other started to grab Bella to hold her still. The first guy struggled with getting Bella off of him, and soon enough, he pulled out his bloody busted up hand from her mouth. She fucked him up good. I feel a little bit of pride swell up inside of me, but that’s short lived, as she was hoisted into a large bag and was tied up. What were these guys thinking!? If they’re going to kidnap my dog, at least do it right! I pause the video and rub my head, gaining a headache from the sadness I’m feeling.

“Hey, if this helps, I know those guys.” I shoot my head over to look at Michael, my eyes widen and I look at him expectantly. “They’re part of a gang. I know that since I was apart of their gang. I’m pretty sure I can get some answers from them.” Michael is awesome, I finally decide. I smile, and tell him that I’ll be coming with him.

“Are ya sure? They’re pretty intense.” I look at him with a bored face.

“Michael. Are you doubting that I can handle them? I was born to handle anybody don’t ever think I can’t handle anyone. For christ sake, I’m your friend, and that’s saying a lot right there.”

“I like you though. I could never hate you. My step-father on the other hand… can’t say that much for him.” He has a stoic look on his face, and crosses his arms. “Alright, if you want to come along, then do so. It’s not like I can stop ya. But, don’t push them too hard. They can get very violent if they want to.”

\---

We make our way downtown, into a more shady area. We are silent the entire time. Michael leads the way; I cautiously follow him. I don’t really exactly mean what I said back home, I just wanted to come with. I’m planning on keeping my mouth shut while Michael talks to his buddies. I can’t really believe he was in a gang. The drugs, okay yeah sure, but gang? I guess I never took the time to know him. We rarely ever talked before, when Roy was alive, and only ever really knew each other through Roy.

We arrive at some alleyway, I actually bump into Michael because he stopped so abruptly, like he immediately knew this one, out of many, was the alleyway we are looking for. Michael glances at me, then grabs my hand and pulls me forward until we reach the back. There’s a door pretty heavily locked. He knocks firmly, patiently waiting for someone to answer.

“Who’re ya?” A peek hole opens up slightly, and I see a blue eye peer at us, first me, then Michael. “Oh my! Would ya look at what the cat brought in. Guys! Michael came back!” His gruff voice shouts. The door swung open, I guess all of those locks were just show. A big burly man with tan skin, black hair, and a crew cut hairstyle is standing in front of us. He doesn’t look too pleased. His arms are crossed, as he stares us down. I gulp, I never had someone like him stare at me like this. I peer over at Michael; he just stood firmly, and held a stoic face.

Soon enough, thankfully, what I presume to be the gang leader or something, shoves past the burly man. He had long red hair with brown eyes. It doesn’t look like he had a lot of muscle, but he could very much be the strongest guy in that room. He also has a tank top on and plenty of tattoos spread across his arms. He looks Michael over, and with a jolly look on his face, gives Michael a bear hug. Michael seems prepared for that, as he returns the hug.

“Michael…” The guy drawls out, “What brings ya here?”

“Ken, we need your help. You see, my friend here, Alex, just lost his dog. She’s a big pitbull, slightly brown, red collar with a little heart tag.” I’m slightly impressed that he remembers that much of my dog. Ken’s eyes widen, and has a sorrowful look on his face.

“Oh, uh… yeah, that would have been us. Sorry, but, she’s, uh… gone. Why don’t you two come inside.” He walks ahead of us into the room. Michael takes my hand and pulls me into the room with him.

The room has a tall lamp, a desk, a couple couches, and some sleeping bags piled up in a corner. The walls aren’t painted, the floor is smooth rock, and there are no windows in here. We sit down on an unoccupied couch as everyone in here looks at us. There’s the burly man, who is closing the door, Ken, and two other guys. They look exactly alike; like twins. Except one of them has a scar around his right eye.

“So… what do you mean she’s gone? Did you kill her?” Michael seemed really pissed off, since he’s crushing my hand.

“No, she’s not killed… at least, I don’t think she is.” I let out a sigh of relief when I hear that. My baby really is okay. I just need to find her.

“Do you know where she is?” Michael asks.

“Why should we answer to you? You left out on us for this stringbean over here!” The guy with the scar shouted. I immediately blush, not liking where this conversation is going. Ken glares at him.

“Jon, keep your damn mouth shut. Michael is blood, we help him out. Besides we owe him.” Is Michael related to one of these guys here? I wonder. Jon grumbles and looks away. “Michael, I’ll tell you as much as I know. Get comfortable, cause there’s a lot to cover.”

“So, it was two days ago, and some lady comes in. She says she’s looking for revenge on some people who hurt her. I didn’t understand what she meant, but I knew she probably wanted us to kill them or something. We don’t kill purposely without a cause, no matter how fucked up that sounds. I tell her she needs to go look somewhere else, but she seemed to know exactly who she’s talking to. She was persistent, she seemed to really want us to end someone’s life. She’s pretty psycho. After consistent declines, she proposes a new idea: how about me and my gang go steal a dog for a fuck ton of money? Simply put, we agreed. She said she’d pay us well, and we carry on like nothing else mattered.

Next day, a letter comes by and we’ve got the address to this fool’s house.” He pointed to me. “We break in that night, and search the house for this stupid dog. We find her, but she puts up a fight. Poor Randy had to go to the hospital after we left. We gave her the dog, badda bing, badda boom, we’re practically rich now. We’re just waiting for the money to come through.” Ken crosses his arms to indicate he was finished.

“Do you know where she is?” Michael asked.

“No. She was waiting here to retrieve the dog. We haven’t a clue where she is. But tell me this: why do you care this much? I mean, it’s just a dog.” I glare at him and open my mouth, but Michael put his hand over it.

“We care, because she could be the same girl who killed our friend, Roy.” Ken looks surprised then, and sighs.

“She killed Roy… of course. It wasn’t just about a dog then. But still, I don’t know where she is. I’m sorry.” Michael nods, grabs my hand and we exit the room.

\---

We make it home silently, with Michael still holding my hand. I ignore it, and try to process the information we gained. I actually want to tell Sam about this; maybe she could get a lead on who this is and where they are. We enter the house and go to sit in the living room. Michael only then releases my hand. He sits next to me.

“So… what do we do now?” He asks, looking over at me.

“I think I need to tell Sam this.”

“She knows?” I nod. I grab my phone and dial her number. Two rings later, she finally picks up.

“Hello Alex, what’s up?” She at least sounds better than she did yesterday.

“Hey, Sam-”

“Oh yeah, I was meaning to call you, but nobody who was at the party didn’t kill Roy.” I pause.

“I know that. What I was meaning to tell you, is that we think we know who did it.”

“We?”

“Michael and I.”

“Oh! You and Michael are bonding? That’s cute.” I choose to ignore that.

“Okay, but…” So I tell her everything we learned.

“I think I can get you a lead by tomorrow. Rest up, this could be big. I also want to come with you guys-- just to help out in case things get ugly.” She ends the call afterward.

“What she say?”

“She says she can maybe get a lead by tomorrow, and she wants to come with us to help.” Michael nods and smiles.

“Hey, I’m sorry about the whole hand holding thing. I just wanted to make sure that the guys wouldn’t touch you.”

“Hey, hey, no need to apologize, I understand.”

“You do? Well… I guess I should get going. It is kind of late. By that, he means 4 o’clock in the daytime. I don’t mind that though and see him out.


	4. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After wandering around town, Alex finds out who did the murder and stole his dog.

It sure is lonely without Bella around. I quickly make lunch, just a peanut butter sandwich, and decide to head out to walk.

I don’t really know or care where I’m heading, I usually do this to keep my mind off things, but I also usually have Bella with me. No, no, I shouldn’t be thinking about her right now, it’ll only make me depressed.

I enjoy the cool crisp air of early fall; it helps keep me calm. Not a lot of people are out and about, which is slightly unusual, but I don’t pay it any mind. I find myself heading over to a bar. It’s the local bar, but I don’t feel like drinking. I find myself walking in anyways and ordering a couple shots of whiskey. I sit myself at a booth and think. I seem to be doing a lot of thinking lately. But who can really blame me? My best friend died and my baby was stolen. I’m on the brink of just giving up and accepting my fate. It’s not like everything would go back to normal afterwards. I keep finding myself thinking about Roy’s lifeless face. I feel like I’m missing something from this.

I start to think about Roy’s past relationships. He was always a good boyfriend, he really was. He was faithful and spent plenty of time with his girls. He’d either find out that one of them was cheating on him, or doing drugs. He couldn’t stand drugs. Anyone that excessively did drugs were no good to him. However, that always made me wonder why he was friends with Michael when he was at his worst. Maybe Michael got sober due to him… I dunno. However, his recent breakup was huge. He found the girl, Wanda, snorting cocaine with some guy, probably her lover, when he came over to her house. Apparently she forgot that he was coming over that night and had some guy come over too. He told me that he felt betrayed when he saw her dazed look. He saw the drugs, the guy was leaving, and he was just standing there looking at her. I could imagine looking pretty darn hurt.

I remember her begging me to just ‘talk to Roy, he’ll understand it if I told him,’ what a bunch of bologna, and she knew it. She knew he was never coming back. I didn’t tell him, because I thought that if she really wanted him, she’d try to better herself to stay with him. I was not going to be a part of this.

Some girl walks up to me and smiles. I just look at her with my sad face.

“Hello, my name’s Lisa. What about you, handsome?”

“Look, I’m not interested,” I state plainly. She rolls her eyes and leaves me alone. I decide to leave at that moment, paying for my shots then exiting. I stumble out of the bar and walked around for a while, really going nowhere.

\---

It was pitch black out when I came back home. I make dinner, some pasta, drank some tea, then went to bed.

I got a phone call in the middle of the night from Sam.

“Sam? This better be-”

“Look, I’m sorry about waking you up and all, but I found out who it was! She’s Wanda, Roy’s crazy ex. She’s located in Albany, she lives in a rundown house in the middle of the city… I’m pretty sure we could get her today if we left early enough. Get ready, me and Michael are coming over.” She ends the phone call at that. I look over at my clock, 2:13 am, it flashed. I groan as I get out of bed and get dressed. I go to the bathroom, then head downstairs to wait for them, slipping on my shoes on the way down.

The door opens up to reveal Michael and Sam.

“Okay, good. You’re up, let’s get going.”

“Okay, Sam.”

\---

We end up taking Sam’s car, I sat in the back, while Michael and Sam rode in the front. I doze off after a little while. I wake up to Michael shouting at me to ‘get the fuck up now!’. I blink, rubbing my head and neck. It was daylight out, and Sam was outside waiting on us. I unbuckle my seatbelt and exit the car. I stretched and turn to Sam.

“So… we’re in Albany?” I ask.

“Yeah. We’ve just stopped near a diner. We should eat before getting her. I’m planning on calling the cops once we find her. It shouldn’t be an issue finding her though. I’ll explain more inside, come on, I’m starving.” We follow her inside and sit at a booth near a window. Sam sat across from me while Michael sat next to me.

“So, first off, I grieved Roy’s death. Then I started asking around. I made phone calls to just about everyone who showed up at the party. Most of them had nothing to say about Roy’s disappearance; I actually didn’t tell them that he died… but I feel like they still told what they could. After hearing from you about Wanda, I started hacking. I started off-” She pauses as the waitress walks up to us. The waitress gets our orders and leaves.

“Anyways, as I was saying, I started off hacking to find her location. With the description you gave me, I’m surprised either of you didn’t at least think it was Wanda. I checked some things, and, yeah-- she’s making a transaction to that guy Ken. She has your dog if anyone, Alex. Anyways, I’ve got her address down. If she’s not home, we’ll hide in there until she comes back. If she is home, I’ll go in alone. She doesn’t know me too well, so she’ll think nothing of me going in. I’ll tell her that her mother died today, we’ll go inside, I’ll share the details, and that’s when you two sneak in. Go search for your dog, she’ll most likely be on the second floor, in a room off to the left. Be quiet though, that’s a given. Once you find Bella, call the cops.”

“How do we know when to come in?” Michael asks.

“Wait a minute; we’ll be in the living room. Neither of us will see you guys when you come in.” Seems like she has this all planned out. I wonder if she came up with it on the go or not.

After lunch at the diner, we get in Sam’s car, and she drives for a little while. All of a sudden, she pulls into a driveway; we’re here. We all get out of the car. There’s a car in front of us, no doubt Wanda’s. Michael and I hide in a bush, while Sam knocks on the door. A few moments pass by, then Wanda reveals herself. Long black hair, pale skin, and icy blue eyes. Sam introduces herself, and they start talking. They enter her house, and that leaves me and Michael to wait.

“So, Alex… are you ready to end all of this?” I hum in thought.

“Yeah. I didn’t really think that Wanda would have done it though. I thought she was better than this… killing her ex-boyfriend and stealing my dog.”

“Well, remember: we all have a little psycho crazy in us. It depends if we choose to act on it or not.” I guess he’s right.


	5. Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finds Bella, but soon gets caught.

We wait a little more, then move into the house as quietly as we can. We rush up the stairs, not looking back, and take a left and enter a room. Bella is laying down looking really miserable. There’s an empty food bowl and water bowl next to her, and has a muzzle on her face. She notices us, and shoots up, her whole body wiggling in joy. Michael stays at the doorway watching me rush to my baby.

“Hey baby girl, don’t worry, we’re here. We’ll get ya out safe and sound.” I notice Michael pulling out his phone from the corner of my eye. I smile and take the muzzle off of Bella. Bella starts to whimper and licks my hand. Michael makes the phone call, and we wait. But, all of a sudden, we hear footsteps from the stairs. I suck in a breath and try not to make any sounds. Michael quickly shuts the door and is about to unlock it when the door is slammed open.

“You mother fuckers!” Wanda yells out. “You really thought I wouldn’t know you’d come here!? You idiots!” We’re frozen in shock; she actually found us. I hear Bella growling, I peer over at her and she’s baring her teeth. “Oh, what a pretty mutt. Such a shame, really.” She pulls a gun out at that moment, and aims it at Bella. I feel afraid. I don’t know what to do. She seems to ignore Michael, which was stupid on her part, because he grabs ahold of her. She shoots, and misses her shot by a few inches. That gives Bella enough time to charge Wanda. She bites Wanda’s leg as she’s struggling to get out of Michael’s hold. She screams out in pain and I run, searching for Sam. 

If she isn’t with Wanda, where is she? I run downstairs and quickly through the living room. I check the kitchen, then the bathroom. She’s nowhere. I don’t think she would have ditched us, so I don’t check outside. I hear shrill screams from somewhere. I didn’t hear them coming from upstairs, so I cautiously make my way downstairs. I look around the dark dungeon like area. I hear struggled breaths coming from somewhere. I wander around, hoping to find a light. I feel around the stone walls and move my hands from side to side. After a few moments, I hit the light switch and I’m blinded by light. I shield my eyes and get adjusted.

“Help me!” I hear Sam scream out. I’m reminded of why I came down here. I lower my arm and I see Sam blindfolded; tied to a chair. She’s trembling and blood is pouring out of her mouth. My eyes widen in fear and I scramble over to her. I begin untying her, but I feel someone watching me. I barely get her hand free by the time I feel someone punch my side. It wasn’t some kid punch either, it felt like getting hit by a car. I fly back a little and land on my side. I look over and see Ken. 

Realization hits me: Ken betrayed us. He must have told Wanda we were coming. How else would Sam have been tied up? I immediately wonder about Michael and Bella. How are they handling Wanda? I get my answer as I hear a yelp and a grunt. I struggle to get up, but I’m held down by Ken.

“You guys are so stupid. You actually thought I wouldn’t know you were coming? Ken, take care of them. I’ll watch.” I can see Ken hesitate, but follow her order.

“Ken… brother… thank you so much for betraying us.” I hear Michael grunt out.

“You don’t understand… I can be a millionaire.”

“Over killing your brother!”

“Just shut up already!” I can hear Ken’s voice break. This can’t be easy for him. This whole idea of becoming rich is destroying him and his family. Wait. Michael and Ken are brothers? They look nothing alike. I feel Ken poking something into my arm and I’m slowly blacking out. I can hear Michael shouting in the background, but I can’t understand a word he’s saying. I see black dots covering my vision and I feel dizzy. My body goes limp and the last thing I feel is someone hoisting me up.


	6. Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex get's tortured.

I woke up to find myself tied down. I can’t move. I seem to be tied down to what feels like a giant cross.I feel something in my mouth which I can only assume is a gag. I can also feel myself drooling, which is irritating me. I look around and see Michael blindfolded and gagged on a giant X, along with Sam sat in the same chair, but now gagged.

“I’m really sorry about all of this, Alex,” I hear a gruff voice say. “You’d do the same in my position.” I can’t see him, but I know it’s Ken. I sigh through my nose. I would never torture someone over money. Especially if that someone happened to be my brother. He’s a different kind of psycho than Wanda, I decide.

Ken walks in front of me, whip in hand and tries not to look sad, I can see it in the way his face shifts. So this is what my life has come to: having my best friend killed by his crazy ex, and me killed shortly after. Ken hesitates before striking me across my chest. Seems like they stripped me of my clothing as well. I grunt in pain. He continues to strike me, hitting my chest, thighs, genitals, and legs. I can feel the blood pouring across my body, and the pain I’m feeling is unbearable. I struggle as much as I can, which is not much, yet, the pain continues. Ken stops for a little while. My body cries in relief. I’m so numb right now that it’s unreal. I see Ken walk over to Michael. I see Ken preparing to whip Michael the same way he did me. The weird thing is that I don’t want Michael to get hurt. It’s bad enough that Sam looks half dead. They both got dragged into this mess and they’re getting punished for it. I can feel tears pouring from eyes, and I start to shout around my gag. The sounds are muffled, but I don’t care. It’s all I feel I can do.

That’s when Wanda approaches me. However, she doesn’t distract me. I continue to shout pointlessly. She runs her fingers across my chest. I flinch in pain, but I ignore it as best I can. Ken begins to beat Michael with the whip. Michael barely reacts to it. Wanda wanders her fingers around my thighs and near my genitals. I could care less of what she wanted to do to with me-- I couldn’t stand Michael getting hit.

“Honey, regardless if you make noise or not, we’re still going through with this. You did this to yourself. Brought along these poor fools. Should have known we’d use them against you.” She gives me a cold look and adds, “You really should have never came here. Yet, you had to dig around… poor helpless soul.” She smirked, “Michael sure has an effect on you, sweetie. I’ve never gotten a reaction like this from my other victims. You’re already my favourite.” I barely listen to her, only hearing ‘Michael’ in the mix of taunts. She sends me a bored look and walks out of my sight. Shortly, she came back with a knife. It was long, thick, and had jagged edges. I flinch as she runs it around my right nipple and then my left. I start to scream as loudly as I possibly can. Fear overtaking me completely. She smiles and licks her lips. I can still hear the cracking sounds from across the room. She takes the gag out of my mouth and says, “Do you have any last words, hon?” I choose that exact moment to scream as loud as I could, hoping that someone could hear. She shoves the gag into my mouth, and starts cutting. It feels like a million bee stings plunging deep into my skin and not stopping. I can feel her writing out something onto my chest. I don’t know why she would do that. She’s relentless; taking pleasure from my pain. I feel dizzy and like I’m about to throw up.

“Freeze! Put your hands where I can see them!” I hear from somewhere. The torture stops at that moment and I don’t hear anymore cracking noises. I choose that moment to black out.


	7. An Alright Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex wakes up in a hospital bed, and Wanda get's sent to prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter. I hope you guys thought this was alright.

I wake up on a white bed. I slowly move my head to side to see an IV hooked up to me. I’m alone in this room, which scares me for a little bit. I shake myself from that mindset and relax. No more constant pain. No more uneasiness. I can finally feel like everything is going to be okay. I hear a door opening; a nurse enters. She looks surprised to see me up.

“Oh! You’re awake. Well, the police are here to ask about what happened. I’ll let them in.” She leaves, and I sigh. Of course it wouldn’t have ended at that. I notice the policemen walk in after a few moments.

“Alright, so I’m officer Davis, and this is my partner Office Thomas. We’re here to question you about what happened a week ago. Just answer to the best of your ability.” Great… I was knocked out for a week. Wait… I was knocked out for a week!?

“Okay…” I rasp out. So I explain to them the whole situation, starting from when I woke up in my friend’s house to now, with Officer Thomas writing the situation on a notepad. When I’m finished, they leave. I fall asleep after awhile of just laying on the bed.

The next time I wake up, I’m feeling a lot better. The IV is disconnected from me, but I don’t feel like getting up. I wait for someone to show up, and soon enough my patience is rewarded. The doctor, of what I’m assuming, walks in and discharges me. I realize I’m still in Albany when I leave the hospital, and call Michael.

“Hey, Alex. Feeling better?” He asks.

“Yeah. Are you guys still here? I want to go home.”

“Yeah, we’re still here. I’ll come get ya. Sam’s asleep. We’re at a hotel actually, but we’ve got you booked in with us. We made sure to.” He hangs up after awhile of more conversation. Turns out that Wanda and Ken are held in custody right now. I’m suspecting my story will get them locked up in jail for a long time.

\---

Michael arrives at the hospital, and we have a silent ride over to a decent sized hotel. We enter the hotel and take an elevator to our room.

“Uh, hey, sorry about this… but, we could only get two beds. I’ll sleep on the couch if you want me to.” I tell him not to worry about it. He shrugs his shoulders and heads off to the bathroom. The room we have is decently sized. Hardwood floor, nice big windows… I see Sam sleeping peacefully on a full size bed. I walk over to the other bed and sit on it. It’s soft, like heavenly soft. Michael walks in and retreats to a red couch. I get up and walk over to him.

“Hey, you shouldn’t have to sleep on a couch. We’re in a hotel, come on.”

“Wouldn’t it be weird if we slept in the same bed?” So I guess he does like me. I can see it all over his face. I blush and tell him no. We shrugs and we walk to the bed. I take the right side of the bed while Michael takes the left. We fall into a blissful rest afterwards.

\---

So, it’s a week later. Wanda and Ken have been hauled off to prison after trial. Michael, Sam, and I returned to Brooklyn, and I found out that my dog died. It was a sad couple of days, but I quickly try to get over it. There’s no use in crying over her, it’s not like she’s going to come back. Oh, and Michael moved in with me. I guess that helped me get over her death. But yeah… I guess this is the happiest ending I’m getting.

~The  
End


End file.
